1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to substrate processing method and apparatus for processing a substrate, for example, semiconductor wafer, glass substrate for LCD, etc. with a processing fluid (e.g. ozone gas, vapor) while accommodating the substrate in a processing container.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the manufacturing process of semiconductor devices, generally, it is carried out to form a resist film on a substrate to be processed, for example, semiconductor water, LCD substrate, etc. by applying a resist liquid on the substrate. In connection, a designated circuit pattern is scaled down by technique of photo lithography and further transferred on the resist film for development. After the development, the resist film is removed from the substrate. Noted that the substrate, such as semiconductor water and LCD substrate, will be referred “wafer”, hereinafter.
As the method for removing the resist film, there is proposed a method for using ozone (O3) exhibiting easy discard process in view is environmental protection in recent years.
In the conventional manufacturing process for semiconductor devices using ozone, it is necessary to heat a wafer or the like accommodated in a processing chamber up to a predetermined temperature, for example, about 100° C. In order to prevent transfer of foreign material from heater to a wafer etc., conventionally, the heating is performed on condition that the wafer etc. is positioned above a support table consisting of a heater and a support mechanism by leaving a gap (e.g. clearance of 0.1 to 0.5 mm) from the support table. Then, the wafer is further processed with a processing fluid, such as ozone, while maintaining the above arrangement (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-249603, Paragraph No.0007 and FIG. 1, for example).
Recently, another method for removing a resist film from a wafer is also proposed. In this method, after accommodating a wafer etc. in an ozone treatment chamber, the interior of the chamber is heated and pressurized. In this state, the wafer is supplied with processing gas (processing fluid) containing vapor and ozone to make soluble resist film. Subsequently, the wafer is transferred to a water washing chamber where the resist film is removed from the wafer.
In the conventional processing method, however, since the wafer is heated and processed with the processing fluid, for example, ozone while being mounted (or fixed) on the support table of the processing chamber through the designated gap of e.g. 0.1 to 0.5 mm, it is feared that the reduced gap between the wafer etc. and the support table causes the inflow of the processing gas to the gap to be stagnant to deteriorate the throughput of the apparatus and uniform processing. Additionally, if employing ozone and vapor as the processing fluid together with a heating mechanism exhibiting deteriorated uniformity, there is the possibility that steam is condensed on both parts of a substrate and the support table to make a hindrance in processing the substrate. While, if the gap between the wafer etc. and the support table is changed more than 0.5 mm, much time would be required to heat up the wafer etc.